Amid complaints that Democrats are scaring seniors about the GOP Medicare plan, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) jumped into the fray with an ad clearly aimed at scaring seniors about the Democratic plan for Medicare, otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act. The NRCC attacks the Affordable Care Act by taking media quotes out of context to claim it would “decimate Medicare” and will lead to “political rationing.” These are straight-up lies considering the health care law extends the life of the Medicare Trust Fund and prohibits rationing care. The health care law also protects and expands Medicare by cutting down on waste, fraud and abuse in the system, and by closing the prescription drug “donut hole” and providing additional preventive and wellness care to seniors.

The headline of the National Republican Congressional Committee's latest blog post reads, "Democrats Borrow The Future With No Plan For Debt Reduction." The post pretends that President Obama's speech proposing major debt reduction over the next decade never happened, and makes the strange argument that a White House effort to protect the U.S.'s credit rating from Standard & Poor's proves "Democrats have been in full out denial" about the debt. The NRCC apparently wasn't paying attention two weeks ago when the Congressional Progressive Caucus introduced a budget resolution titled "The People's Budget," a mirror image of the Republican scheme to undo the social safety net in order to finance a huge tax cut for the rich. That's just one of four debt-reduction plans offered by Democrats this month. Ironically, by showing more interest in name-calling than in engaging with the ideas Democrats actually put forward, the NRCC's researchers only further the fears that drove S&P to downgrade its expectations for U.S. debt in the first place.

The National Republican Congressional Committee gets cute with an attack ad framed as a weather forecast, accusing State Senator Julie Lassa (D-WI) of a "blizzard of negative TV ads" and saying she "rained on us with higher taxes, reckless spending, and soaring unemployment." But the ad bases many of its claims on articles taken severely out of context. Moreover, blaming Lassa for Wisconsin's unemployment — which has actually improved since the Recovery Act took effect — is absurd given the global recession. In fact, Wisconsin's job market has outperformed the national average throughout the recession — and Lassa's time in state government.

In a new ad attacking Rep. Walt Minnick (D-ID), the National Republican Congressional Committee all but outright lies when it says that Minnick is "part of the problem" with "out of control spending, national energy tax, government takeover of health care." You see, Rep. Minnick, who can lay claim to the title of most conservative Democrat in the House, voted against the Recovery Act (and all other forms of fiscal stimulus), clean energy legislation, and health care reform. Furthermore, holding up the statistic that Minnick votes with Speaker Pelosi 70 percent of the time as evidence that Minnick votes the party line is absurd: Minnick bucks his own party more often then any of the 435 House members, Republicans included.

In an ad attacking Rep. John Spratt (D-SC), the NRCC aims to stoke fear among voters by raising the specter of increased taxes and ballooning deficit. The NRCC blames Spratt for writing the FY2009 budget "to raise taxes on the middle class" — when the budget called for no increase in taxes — and misrepresents the stimulus as "wasteful" even though it created millions of jobs and revitalized the economy. And despite the NRCC's claim that "this year's budget" is worth "a trillion dollar deficit," the deficit is a legacy of Bush policies and the economic downturn.

Attacking Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-TN) in a new ad, the National Republican Congressional Committee attempts to illustrate that Davis's priorities have changed since he first made a run for Congress in 1983. Yet the NRCC's criticisms don't hold water. The "wasteful stimulus" boosted the economy and created millions of American jobs. And Davis's vote in favor of the budget — which the NRCC claims "called for tax increases on working people" — doesn't make much sense when you realize that current tax rates are actually at near-historical lows. Furthermore, the fact that Davis broke with the Democrats to vote against initiatives like health care reform and clean energy legislation flies in the face of the ad's suggestion that Davis votes on Pelosi's command.

The NRCC continues to attack members of Congress for their association with policies supported by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, no matter how much those policies benefit Americans. In the group's ad against Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND), the NRCC once again reverses the facts, claiming that legislation such as the Recovery Act and the Affordable Care Act benefitted Nancy Pelosi more than the people of North Dakota, when in fact, the Recovery Act boosted the economy and the Affordable Care Act improved health care coverage for North Dakotans. Similarly, the NRCC seems to forget that the Bush administration is largely responsible for the explosion of debt as well as the "bailout" of Wall Street.

The NRCC is out with a new attack ad against Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI), accusing him of becoming a "rubber stamp" for Nancy Pelosi and President Obama. The group goes after Kind for supporting a "cap-and-trade energy tax," the Wall Street "bailout," the "wasteful" stimulus package, and health care reform, but fails to note any specifics about these initiatives — perhaps because they actually benefit voters. For example, clean energy legislation would create millions of American jobs — including 35,000 in Wisconsin — and the Recovery Act provided a vital boost to the economy, helping stave off another Great Depression. Additionally, the Wall Street "bailout" was instrumental in stabilizing the economy, and the Affordable Care Act will provide access to insurance for Americans with pre-existing conditions as well as require insurers to provide free preventive care services, among other things.

The National Republican Congressional Committee's attack ad against Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY) aims to tie the congressman to President Obama and the policies he supports. The NRCC casts the Recovery Act as a "wasteful stimulus" before mentioning Chandler's votes for clean energy legislation and raising the debt ceiling. However, while the NRCC tries to portray these votes in a negative light, each piece of legislation was actually beneficial — the Recovery Act prevented the economy from slipping into a second Great Depression, raising the debt limit prevented the country from effectively entering into default, and clean energy legislation would create jobs and boost the economy at minimal cost to taxpayers.

In a new attack ad against Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC), the NRCC attempts to scare seniors into believing they are being "robb[ed]" of their Social Security benefits. In reality, Social Security holds assets of over $2.5 trillion and is solvent for over 25 years despite the recession. And, in the unlikely event that Congress fails to shore up Social Security's finances before 2037, benefits would have to be cut — but would still be paid.

The National Republican Congressional Committee's latest calculated attack on Rep. Scott Murphy (D-NY) just doesn't add up. In an ad depicting a clipboard, squeaky markers, and faulty arithmetic, the NRCC attempts to spin Murphy's voting record into a nonsensical math problem. The NRCC claims Murphy supported "higher insurance premiums for hard-hit families," when insurance premiums for most Americans stay the same or decrease under the Affordable Care Act. The ad seeks to divide voters by saying "147 thousand jobs" could be lost on clean energy taxes, when in fact, new energy legislation would multiply job growth, creating 109,000 New York jobs, and nearly two million jobs across the country.

In a new ad titled "Clout," the NRCC once again attacks Rep. Glenn Nye (D-VA) for supporting legislation that allegedly failed to create jobs in Virginia, and makes the misleading suggestion that Nye is responsible for the relocation of a Virginia-based aircraft carrier to Florida. However, that decision isn't finalized, and Nye actually inserted a provision into FY2011 Defense Authorization Bill that would block funding to move the carrier. The ad also pretends that the Recovery Act caused Virginia unemployment to jump 14 percent, but since July 2009, when Recovery Act spending began to affect the economy, unemployment has fallen by approximately 1.3 percent in the state. In Virginia and around the country, the bill succeeded in saving and creating millions of jobs and helped avert another depression.

The National Republican Congressional Committee proves to be a "party" pooper in its latest ad attacking Rep. John Boccieri (D-OH). The NRCC attacks Boccieri's support for the Recovery Act, which it bills as "wasteful spending" that "increase[d] the national debt," despite the fact that it created millions of jobs and boosted the economy. Besides, Republican policies are responsible for the vast majority of the exploding debt. The NRCC also criticizes Boccieri over clean energy legislation, which would have created jobs and helped the economy at minimal cost to taxpayers; and over health care reform, which did not actually involve a "government takeover." Furthermore, the ad brazenly misrepresents Ohio's unemployment, which has actually fallen by 7 percent since the Recovery Act took effect.

In an ad attacking conservative Democrat Rep. Chris Carney (PA), the National Republican Congressional Committee bashes Carney for voting with Speaker Pelosi "over 90 percent of the time" but never mentions that Carney actually broke with Democrats on major legislation like cap-and-trade. The NRCC is also misguided in criticizing Carney for his vote in favor of the Recovery Act, which boosted the economy and created millions of jobs in America — not in China, as the ad asserts.

The NRCC continually blames Democrats for the financial woes facing the country. In its latest ad, the organization asks New Mexico's voters "What has Harry Teague cost us in his two years?" and suggests that his votes are responsible for the trillions in debt racked up under the Bush administration and the job losses in New Mexico that resulted from the recession. However, Teague's vote for what the NRCC calls "wasteful stimulus spending" actually helped stave off another Great Depression. Likewise, the NRCC tries to scare voters about a "cap-and-trade tax," that would cost jobs, but clean energy legislation would actually bring thousands of new jobs to New Mexico.

The NRCC has frequently placed undue blame on a variety of Democratic candidates for their support of a number of policies that affect the economy. However, in their latest attack on Rep. Mark Critz (D-PA), the NRCC ludicrously attempts to equate Critz's vote to adjourn the House in September to job losses in Pennsylvania on the very same day. The NRCC does so by characterizing Critz's vote to adjourn as his refusal to "help small businesses and families" by failing to extend Bush-era tax cuts — when in reality, congressional Democrats have vowed to act on extending the tax cuts to 97% of Americans after the midterm election.

The NRCC clearly doesn't "understand" who's to blame for the rising deficit and debt. In their latest attack on Rep. Travis Childers (D-MS), the NRCC claims that he and Pelosi are "punishing our grandchildren" by increasing the debt — when it was actually Bush-era policies that ballooned publicly- and privately-held debt. The NRCC also blasts the Recovery Act, calling it a "failed" program, when in fact the legislation created millions of jobs and revived the economy.

Clean energy legislation is the focus of the National Republican Congressional Committee's ad attacking Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN). The NRCC accuses Walz and Speaker Nancy Pelosi of "making it worse" for struggling families by supporting cap-and-trade policies that would "hit farmers, small businesses and seniors hard." But clean energy legislation would boost the economy, create jobs, and help farmers, all while costing less than a quarter a day.

In a new ad, the NRCC uses a quote from 2006 to suggest Rep. Zach Space is out of touch with economic hardships in 2010. It's an especially dirty trick since unemployment in Ohio was dropping in 2006. The ad immediately ups the misinformation ante by claiming that the "failed" stimulus "created renewable energy jobs in China." Not surprisingly, this statement is also a distortion of the facts. The Recovery Act boosted the economy and created millions of American jobs — not "jobs in China."

Given the NRCC's role as the official party organization of Republican congressional candidates, you would think that the group would have some sort of basic understanding of how Congress works. However, the NRCC's latest attack on Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX) proves that this is not the case. The organization first gets its facts wrong about the Recovery Act, claiming that the "failed stimulus" created jobs in China and gave millions in bonuses to executives on Wall Street, when actually the bill created jobs here in America and limited executive bonuses for recipients of TARP money. The real doozy, however, is the claim that Rodriguez "raised his own pay four times." While Rodriguez's pay may have increased since he took office, it is because Congress automatically receives cost of living adjustments every year — adjustments which Rodriguez has actually voted against multiple times.

The NRCC has released a torrent of unoriginal and misleading ads this election cycle, and their latest attack ad against Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO) is no exception. In addition to recycling long-debunked claims about the "failed stimulus" and "job-killing energy taxes," the NRCC attempts to put blame on Skelton and the Democrats for our nation's debt. In reality though, the Recovery Act provided a vital boost to the economy, and clean energy legislation would create — not kill — millions of American jobs. Furthermore, the exploding debt is a result of ill-conceived Bush-era policies and the recession.

The National Republican Congressional Committee is out with a surprisingly creepy ad illustrating the purported decline in Rep. Martin Heinrich's (D-NM) effectiveness as a legislator, using images of a hospital and the sound of a heart rate monitor and announcing that "Heinrich's condition has gone from bad to worse." At the end, the ad intones, "Martin Heinrich, time's up" and the heart rate monitor flatlines. But the evidence offered for Heinrich's supposed failure includes the deficit, which is a legacy of Bush-era Republican policies; the Recovery Act, which created jobs and boosted the economy; and health care reform, which, contrary to the ad's assertion, strengthens Medicare without cutting benefits for seniors.

In an ad attacking Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD), the National Republican Congressional Committee claims that Kratovil "isn't independent," holding up the statistic that he voted with Speaker Nancy Pelosi "most of the time." Yet this claim is relatively meaningless: Most congressional votes are non-controversial, and even conservative Republicans vote with Nancy Pelosi "most of the time." The ad also disparages the Recovery Act, suggesting that Kratovil's support for it resulted in "record debt and high unemployment." In fact, the Recovery Act created jobs and boosted the economy, and the skyrocketing debt is a legacy of Bush-era Republican policies.

The NRCC tries to pin a price tag on how much a vote for Rep. Gene Taylor (D-MS) would cost Mississippi voters — and fails miserably. Though the NRCC's latest ad feigns objectivity by citing data from the non-partisan Tax Foundation, it completely ignores the organization's conclusion and makes up its own, suggesting that a vote for Taylor is a vote for $1,556 in higher taxes. However the NRCC bases this conclusion on the false claim that Democrats want to eliminate all of the Bush-era tax cuts. In fact, the Tax Foundation's study shows that middle class families will have lower taxes because Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats in Congress favor extending tax cuts to 97% of American families. Additionally, if taxes did increase in 2011, voters would have Republicans to thank for writing in an expiration date on the Bush tax cuts in order to hide their true cost.

The National Republican Congressional Committee pulls out all the stops in a newly released ad attacking Washington House candidate Denny Heck (D), hitting three major Democratic initiatives — the Recovery Act, health care reform and clean energy legislation — in under a minute. The NRCC isn't telling voters this, but the Affordable Care Act actually strengthens Medicare without reducing seniors' benefits, and the Recovery Act, rather than exploding the debt — that's a Bush-era legacy — has created millions of jobs and spurred economic growth. Additionally, had clean energy legislation been enacted into law, millions of American jobs would have been created while costing taxpayers only pennies a day.

In a new ad titled "True Loyalty," the National Republican Congressional Committee takes aim at Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) over his support for policies that have allegedly "cost us too much." Despite the NRCC's claims, the Recovery Act was instrumental in stimulating economic growth, and the clean energy bill passed by House Democrats would create millions of American jobs at minimal cost to families. Moreover, the Wall Street "bailout" stabilized the economy and industry, and our current debt problems are legacies of Bush-era policies and the recession.